Today, we face many challenges in our daily lives that demand the expenditure of valuable resources. These challenges are presented as part of an environment (e.g. non-computing and/or computing environments) that is itself governed by a set of operating rules. In an ideal world, a person navigating through these environments would have the ability to change or re-define those rules to assist in disposing of encountered challenges. For every rule there is a sanction, a retribution, a reprimand, and in some cases a punishment which can be levied by a governing authority and/or environment operator for breaking or circumventing the environment rule. Some environments may not offer a sanction, reprimand, retribution, or punishment when a rule is broken, bur rather may be structured that it is virtually impossible to circumvent or break an environment rule. Accordingly, on balance, most people when navigating in an environment try their best to adhere to the environment rules, or in the case where there is no risk for rule breaking, do not attempt to break or circumvent rules as the environment structure makes it difficult to break the environment rules. Even if one were to choose to break an environment rule, in most environments there are not mechanisms that allow for rule breaking that either mitigate or completely remove risk.
To stay competitive in a particular environment and to optimize the position in the environment by exploiting the predefined rules, rigorous physical and/or mental training, or the use of advanced tools may be required. However, for the non-scrupulous, the same maybe be achieved by circumventing and/or breaking the predefined rules. The rules may be broken, for example, through bribery, cheating, and deception. Such rule circumvention and/or breaking has allowed for some significant events in our society today. For example, some ventures, and even some governments can base their existence on the practice of breaking environment rules, or at the least circumventing the predefined environment rules to more quickly achieve a desired goal. Subscribing to social conventions, however, breaking rules is traditionally kept secret in fear of retaliation, reprimand, and rebuke from non-sanctioning parties. Considering the benefits that may be realized from circumventing and/or breaking predefined rules of an environment, if given the choice, most would to circumvent and/or break the environment predefined rules to assist them with their daily challenges.
Human nature dictates our need to achieve. This is apparent in the field of gaming. Gaming enthusiasts are willing to pay for the opportunity to have the ability to circumvent and/or break the predefined rules of the computer game. This is especially the case where the player has spent a significant amount of time and energy in overcoming various challenges within the game to reach the desired goal of completing the game, but is unable to overcome a particular posed challenge. In such a circumstance, the player will likely be willing to pay for the ability to overcome this posed challenge through the circumvention of a predefined rule that helps define the challenge. In recent years, gaming enthusiasts have enjoyed a number of action, action-adventure, adventure, and strategy games, such as, DOOM®, QUAKE®, AGE OF EMPIRES®, ULITMA ONLINE®, etc. The object of these games is to wage battle with various beings in an effort to win a war or improve your standing within the game and/or gaming community. These games are typically structured such that the player is given access to increasingly superior weaponry and/or skills as they advance through increasingly difficult game levels. In an ideal world, gamers would be able to have access to these superior weapons, or alternatively, additional ammunition for their existing weaponry, and/or superior skills earlier in the gaming experience, thereby increasing the gamers chances of completing computer game levels.
Current practices and conventions require gamers to ferret through computer game reference information, such as computer game hint books and computer game hint Websites to find what are touted as credible and reliable hints that are advertised, if used, would help garners more easily play a computer game. A hint may provide information such as button combinations that would allow gamers to circumvent and/or break the predefined rules of a computer game (e.g. obtain a superior weapon instantaneously without having to complete a game level or having to find it in the computer game environment). However, these practices place a significant burden on gamers as they are required to spend their time and energy tracking these hints down. Also, there is no guarantee that the hint actually works as advertised. The gamer is thus exposed to the possibility of trying numerous hints before finding one that achieves the desired computer game predefined rule circumvention and/or rule breaking (e.g. obtaining a superior weapon). Moreover, there is a disconnect in the activities surrounding the actual playing of a computer game and incorporating a found hint in the game being played. That is, the hints are not integrated within the computer game environment and exist external to the computer game.
Moreover, currently, computer game developers are not afforded the ability to monetize the existing practice of rule circumvention. Typically, computer game developers invest significant resources, both labor and capital, to create a computer game having a specific set of rules (e.g. collect four bottles in a particular level and the game will advance the participating user to the next game level). In some instances, the computer game (or other computing environment) is configured such that the participating user is required to complete an entire level before advancing and are configured to only to perform a save at the beginning of a particular game level. Such game configuration, which is often the case, frustrates participating gamers as they are required to repeat a portion or more of a particular level each time the game is played. Such frustration leads gaming enthusiasts to search for rule circumvention techniques to avoid the games rigid configuration.
A more advantageous practice contemplates providing enhanced entertainment options for a computer game wherein a mechanism is offered to gaming developers for integration with within a computer game that offers the ability to gamers to circumvent and/or break the predefined rules of the computer game while the game is being played. This practice further contemplates the ability to transact the instance in which the gamer accepts the offers provided by the mechanism while the game is being played. Such practice would eliminate the time and effort expenditure required by existing practices and protect the gamer from using faulty hints. Moreover, the enhanced entertainment option would provide interactive advertisements that are seamlessly integrated within the computer game allowing users to purchase products and/or services or receive desired information while the game is being played.
From the foregoing it can be appreciated that there exists a need for comprehensive systems and methods that offer computing environment operators the ability to monetize the circumvention of rules in the environment such that participants of an environment are allowed to circumvent environment rules using an integrated mechanism which is invoked through a transaction.